Change as the Goal of Educational Research

Abstract

This article describes two case studies conducted with working‐class Hispanic students and their teachers. For each study we discuss how existing instructional conditions constrain what both students and teachers are able to accomplish, and in each case we apply local knowledge to alter instructional procedures in ways that are more productive. We argue that there is nothing about the students' language or culture that should handicap their schooling; the problems some language minority students face in school must be viewed as a consequence of instructional arrangements that ensnare certain children by not capitalizing fully on their social, linguistic, and intellectual resources. We conclude by describing a research approach that builds upon what we learned from the case studies by creating community‐based research sites. CLASSROOM RESEARCH, EDUCATIONAL CHANGE, BILINGUAL EDUCATION, MICROETHNOGRAPHY, VYGOTSKY, LEV S.